Happy New Year

I wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year!

Very Merry Christmas !!!!!!!

Isn't he the cutest?

This post is long over due.

A couple few weeks ago, I won this adorable little fella from a giveaway that Angi hosted on her blog, Drakestone Primitives.
He is so much cuter than I even thought he might be and Angi made it herself. He is only about 5" tall, just the right size to tuck amongst my old tins. I think he looks quite happy in his new surroundings. Thank you Angi!!

You need to go visit Angi's blog. She has more of these Attic Bears for sale and some lovely prim Heirloom Santas too. She also sells patterns for prim dolls and prairie bonnets. I'm sure you would enjoy just looking at all of her prim goodies.

I don't know about you, but I think that time is flying right by lately. Seems like it was just Halloween a couple of weeks ago. Then Thanksgiving snuck in real quick and now it's almost December. Am I getting so old that my sense of time is slipping away or is it that I'm finally starting to realize that on this next birthday coming up in a couple of weeks, that I'm just not young anymore? Being a Grandma didn't bother me, 40 didn't bother me, 50 didn't bother me, even 60 didn't bother me. But when I went to sign up for Social Security...KaBammm! What the He**!  I don't feel any different so how can I be OLD!??!!? {sigh}

Whew....I'm okay now :0)

Have a nice day!

Pantry coming right along

FIRST... I would like to give my blessings to  all of our veterans for their help in keeping our homes safe!

Remember the room that I was going to turn into a craftroom and then decided that I need a pantry to store all of my canned goods instead? Well, it is almost finished. I couldn't wait to show you it any longer. I still have a few things that I want to do to it, but here is what is done so far...
When you first come into the room (the kitchen is just through that doorway) I have a desk that I keep all my bottles of oils, vinegars and such. Next to that is a file cabinet that I hope to put all of my recipes, cookbooks & craft books in. That's a project for in the future.

Then I went to the basement and found these old cabinets.

We drug them upstairs from out of the basement, dusted them off and fixed a couple of shelves. The tall one is a cabinet that my Hubby's relative had made to store his food goods in years ago. Hubby & Zack had to cut about a foot off of the bottom of it because of some water damage. The other cabinet I had bought at an auction several years ago. I love the old latch on the doors.

 It has a panel of glass missing from one of the doors. So I'm going to remove the other glass and make some curtains to go there instead. My daughters think I should paint them to match the furniture that I painted on the other side of the room, but I kind of like the rustic look for now. (just noticed that I haven't got the oats that I just bought today, put in a mason jar yet. whoops). I also found a letter holder that I was planning on painting some day. But I just attached it to the side of the tall cabinet to put my small packages of gravy mixes and such.

On the other side of the room is a big cabinet that I got awhile back. I've actually got two of them. The other one is still in my livingroom.

That baby is HEAVY and none of them want to ever move it again. LOL
The drawers have the boxes of trash bags, tin foil, sandwich bags, paper plates and things like that in them. I have room for almost all of my pantry items now AND I still can have some of my craft supplies in there.

When Tammi and I first started fixing this room up, we had built this table onto the side of an old buffet. I still have some staining to do on the doors and table. But I can move my monitor and keyboard on top of my printer and still have lots of room for my sewing machine when I need it.

There's  another table for cutting or painting or for the grandkids to work on their science projects.

{Sorry 'bout the sunshine. Curtains aren't made yet}

And I also have a comfy chair to sit and read my craft books or do a little hand sewing.

I still have some pictures to hang on the walls and curtains to make using the material in the chair. And I do want to make slipcovers and paint the chair white someday. But I'm really likin' what we've done so far.

 I'm not sure what kind of decorating style that I have. I really like the farmhouse rustic look. But I always mix it with colors that are a bit out of the ordinary.

Oh well.......that's just me!

Be Safe & Have a Wonderful Evening

Kitty dillema

While I was getting my groceries out of the car after I came home from the store this morning, I thought I heard one of our cats meowing. I didn't see where it was so I just kept taking sacks into the house. Each time I would go outside I would hear the cat again and he sounded strange. When I went inside for the last time, I asked Kelly if she would go outside with me and see if we could find where the kitty was. We looked around for a bit, he kept meowing and then Kelly looked up. There he was in one of our huge pine trees, pacing back & forth on one of the limbs. Poor kitty, he was so scared. We found the tallest ladder that we had at home and it wasn't even close to reaching him. So I called my son and told him what happened. He was at his house with my Hubby building a new garage, and that was where the taller ladders were. They said they would get him him down when they finished what they were doing. We thought the poor thing was going to be stranded for a few more hours, but it was just a short time later that my daughter and my other two grandkids came over. Kelly showed them where the kitty was and they came up with this plan. LOL

The grandkids got an old blanket that they could hold in case he fell. Tammi got the leaf catcher net for the pool. They put a little cat food in the net, hoping the cat would just go into it, but he wouldn't go for that. Tammi ended up having to push him out of the tree with the net. When that cat hit the blanket, he was out of there in one hop and high-tailed it away.

I was laughing so much that it was hard to keep the camera still. Hubby and Tom were glad to hear that they didn't have to haul the ladders home.

THEY ALL SAVED THE DAY !!

10-11-12

TOMORROW IS MY HUBBY'S BIRTHDAY AND MY OLDEST GRANDDAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY. I THOUGHT THE DATE THIS YEAR WAS VERY INTERESTING... 10-11-12 and Kelly will turn 13!  SPOOKY! LOL

My latest passion is for CANNING

I have been EXTREMELY busy this year with canning and freezing. Although I have canned for many years, this year we have gone all out! My eldest daughter, my Mom and I have been canning our old regular recipes (salsa, tomato sauce, applesauce , etc) and trying a few different things.
My Uncle Bert gets tons of potatoes from a farmer that grows potatoes to sell to restaurants... for free. He then donates them to churches and food banks.  He graciously let my family come and get some too. I brought home over 5 bushels. I think we spent a whole week mashing, cutting into hash browns or french fries, deep frying part done and freezing. I even tried canning a few quarts. We have already ate some of the mashed and the french fries. They were DELICIOUS!!
One of the recipes that I have to can every year is one that I got from my sister-in-law a couple years back. Sweet Pickle Relish made from zucchini.

Here is the recipe:

SWEET ZUCCHINI RELISH

10 c. zucchini, ground
4 c. onion, ground
2 large green peppers, ground
5 Tb. salt
 Let stand overnight (refrigerate)

Add:
1 Tb. mustard seed
1 Tb. celery seed
1 Tb. turmeric
1/2 tsp. pepper
5 c. sugar
2  1/2 c. apple cider vinegar

Bring to a boil - 10 min.
Add  2 Tb. cornstarch, dissolved.
Boil 4-5 more minutes. Stirring regularly (Tip: If you use a white plastic spoon, it will permanently stain it green, LOL)
Put in jars. Hot water bath for 10 min.
Makes 7 pints

I like to can mine in 1/2 pints because we don't use it that often. But we can't hardly eat a hotdog now without some of this relish on it and it's really good added to chicken salad.
The instructions are pretty straight-and-to-the-point. If you're going to try and make this and need some more explanations, please send me an email or a comment and I will get back with you.

Except for a few more raspberries, the garden has been all cleaned up and is ready for winter. Now I will spend some time canning things like "Meals in a Jar", homemade soups or chicken. Or maybe I will get lucky again and have a friend bring me over some deer meat to can.
I will have lots more room for all my canned goods soon. Remember that craft room that I was going to show you?

Well now it's getting turned into a pantry! PERFECT! This room is situated right off the kitchen and will be so handy! Can you tell how excited I am? I'm going to be installing the shelving in the next couple of days. Since I haven't been doing much crafting lately, it makes so much more sense to make this room the best ever pantry.

If you like to do jam & jelly canning, or you would like to win some homemade vanilla extract and tarragon vinegar....check out Canarella's giveaway on my sidebar.


I am linked with:

Just Gettin' the Hang of It Again

It has been so long since my last post that I have to reacquaint myself with how things are done.
I see there have been some changes too.
This is going to be short & sweet this time. I'm going to play around a bit , update some things and pretty my blog up for Fall.
I will be back soon though!

Judy

Blarney !!!

I hope you enjoy your day today!
Judy

Bunny Swap

I joined Wendy's Bunny Hop Swap over at her blog, Ravenwood Whimzies.
My partner was Linda from The Olde Homestead. She just started blogging not to long ago. I'm sure she would like you to go visit her.
This is the wonderful bunny that I received from her.

Isn't he just the greatest?
And I also received some tarts for my tart warmer and they smell sooooo good!
The littlest bunny got put on my desk at work. I really love everything that she sent to me.
This will be my fella's permanent home all year long. (ignore the dirty window please! It's still too darn cold out to wash windows)

BTW...craft room is almost finished and I'm so excited to start moving my STUFF in there. You might have noticed in the pics above that it is purple, yep purple.

Kelly's room

This year has been a remodel and spruce up kinda year for me. My daughter Tammi and I have been doing some work around my house. My upstairs used to be 5 small rooms. Now there are only 3. We took a wall down between a couple of the rooms and made them bigger. What an improvement!

Kelly was excited to get a new room. She was getting tired of the horses I had painted on her walls before.But her Mom still liked them so they switched rooms.

Kelly wanted bright colors. We went with the colors in a comforter that she liked. Now it is definitely bright and cheery!

She wanted her walls to be bright green...



 

 
and her closet to be purple...

I took an antique bed that my daughter Steph didn't want anymore and painted it orange...

looks like she needs more practice at making beds.

Tammi and I took an old desk that I got at an auction and made some built in shelves and desk....

I'm keeping my eye out for a chair for her desk. There is also a loveseat in the corner that you can't see. It is the old one that was in our livingroom that just got replaced with new. I am going to make a slipcover for it using some sheets that match the ones on her bed. 
Did you notice the board going across the ceiling? That is where we tore the wall out to make the room bigger. This old farmhouse is over 100 years old and nothing is level or square. It was built like an old barn with beams that were chiseled by hand. So we had to put the board there to cover up where the two ceilings didn't match up.
Now she has a room that is "FIT for a PRETEEN", don't you think?


I have linked this post to :
Potpourri Friday at 2805
My Romantic Home - Show & Tell Friday

Jordan's Desk

This will be a quick post to show you the desk that I painted for my grandaughter. She wanted lots of bright colors. So I painted it with some of the purple from her walls and some pink, green and light blue. I knew she would have stuff sitting on her desk so I just painted some simple flowers in the corners. She was very happy with it.

While we were upstairs painting Kelly's room, we also painted the landing room (the area at the top of the stairs). There isn't much room in that space but I fit a twin bed up there for when one of the other grandkids come to stay. The armoire was my husbands when he was a small boy. As you can tell, this is called the 'monkey' room. I have a small collection of sock monkeys. Kelly took these pictures and you can't see that I have sock monkey ornies on my little tree too.

See the green wall in the next room? That is Kelly's room. I will post about it next.

Meanwhile...This is our next project.........

MY NEW CRAFT ROOM !!!!!   

I'm really anxious to get this room done. All my sewing and painting supplies have been packed away and I really would like to get them out again soon. Even though I'm having a lot of fun picking out colors and figuring out where I'm going to put everything.
Now you know what I've been doing on these cold snowy days.